


cellophane flowers of yellow and green

by spoopdeedoop



Category: In the Heights - Miranda/Hudes
Genre: F/F, a little vent fic, and also a gift for the ith discord server!, bc schoolwork sucks and um, idk lol, just a small thing, no beta we die like men, yeah - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-16 00:00:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29691924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spoopdeedoop/pseuds/spoopdeedoop
Summary: Nina follows logic.It’s just who she is. She’s analytical. Logic makes sense. Logic is reason and facts and proof and Nina enjoys it, basks in it, because logic just. It makes sense.But this doesn’t.(or: nina's been overworking herself. again.)
Relationships: Nina Rosario & Vanessa, Nina Rosario/Vanessa
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8





	cellophane flowers of yellow and green

**Author's Note:**

> a small thing i wrote during school because i needed a break, much like nina needs one, too.
> 
> sorry if it's a little messy, i was spewing words bc i haven't written anything in a fuck long while

Nina follows logic.

It’s just who she is. She’s analytical. Logic makes sense. Logic is reason and facts and proof and Nina enjoys it, basks in it, because logic just. It makes  _ sense.  _

But this doesn’t.

The words on the page in front of her are wavering before her eyes at this point, meaningless lines and loops bunched together on yellowed paper. Normally, this would be easy. English is one of Nina’s strongest points; she can usually ace a test’s ass with ease, to be met with As and a swelling feeling of pride. 

She remembers back to third grade and receiving the results of the first spelling test they’d taken, back when everything looked like sunshine and positivity. 

_ 50/50.  _ Full marks. 

She’d been so happy. Over the moon, in fact.

She remembers the first parent-teacher conference she’d attended, ten years old and stiff in the little plastic chair, listening to her father and her teacher discuss her progress in school so far. Her mother sat beside her, holding one of Nina’s hands, eyes wide with suspense.

_ She’s bright and cheerful and remarkably smart,  _ her teacher had said in hushed, pleased tones.  _ Her enthusiasm for her education is astounding. She may as well be the best in her year.  _

Nina remembers her parents’ grins and the proud mom hug Camila had given her right then. Something in her chest had sparked, something that felt amazing.

The best.

She was  _ the best. _

But now.

Nina doesn’t feel bright or cheerful or remarkably smart.

Nina doesn’t even feel  _ happy. _

She takes the textbook and brings it closer towards her, squinting, eyes straining against the dark of the room. Her lamp flickers weakly. She’d turned it on, but it’s an old lamp, and it doesn’t really manage to stay lit through so much as five minutes anymore. 

She tries to read the paragraph before her for the seventy-second time. 

Nothing.

She can’t seem to process the information behind these words. All she sees are cold stone cave walls, with no diamonds for ages, and her pickaxe is frail and broken and incapable. 

She’s incapable.

Nina runs a hand over her forehead and down her neck. Her eyes are starting to sting and her breath is coming in short gasps.

Shit.

“Nina?”   
  


Nina turns.

Vanessa is standing in the doorway to her bedroom, one hand on the doorframe and the other holding a steaming mug. There’s a blanket draped over her shoulder - the heavy, fluffy one that Nina’s seen her curled up in so many times - sky blue printed with flowers of muted yellows and greens.

“Is that coffee?” Nina tilts her chin toward the mug. Her voice comes out coarse, rasping against the sides of her throat. She coughs into her fist to clear it.

Vanessa shakes her head. “Chamomile tea.” She sets it down on Nina’s desk beside the drastically failing lamp and sets a hand on Nina’s shoulder. “Why are you still up? It’s half-past one.”

“Needed to finish something,” Nina mumbles. She blinks. The unshed tears are making her eyesight go foggy.

“Honey,” Vanessa sighs, rubbing a small circle into Nina’s shoulder with her thumb. The motion is warm, comforting. “You didn’t sleep at all last night, either. Is this the thing you were working on yesterday?” 

It is. 

“No,” Nina croaks.

Truth be told, she’s been struggling with this since last week. She’d been getting some work done, slowly, but the small, feeble three-sentence paragraph she’d completed hardly compares to the 3000-word quota. It’s just all been-

It’s been too much, lately.

It’s all too much.

“Nina,” Vanessa says quietly. A single word, barely a whisper. 

Nina breaks.

The floodgates are open, now. Nina wipes furiously at the tears flowing from her eyes and lets out a choked sob.

Vanessa wordlessly takes her in her arms and wraps Nina into the blanket, settling it around her shoulders before hugging her close. Nina clings to her like a lifeline. 

She cries. Vanessa lets her. 

“I’m sorry,” she gasps. “I’m sorry.”

“Oh, sweetie, don’t be sorry.” Vanessa presses a kiss into Nina’s hair. “I know you work hard. I know if you don’t you feel like… like you’re letting someone down. But overworking yourself isn’t gonna help anyone.”

Nina doesn’t respond, just buries her face into the crook of Vanessa’s neck and stays there, breathing her in, trying to ground herself. 

“You need to take a break,” Vanessa says softly, burying a hand into Nina’s hair.

“I haven’t  _ done anything,”  _ Nina mutters irritably. She sniffs and shifts in Vanessa’s arms so she’s facing her, her brow furrowed. “I haven’t gotten anything done in the past week _ ,  _ ‘Ness. Everything’s unfinished and my brain doesn’t  _ wanna fuckin do anything about it.” _

“I know. Let it rest.”

“It doesn’t need rest, it hasn’t done anything.” Nina’s eyes prickle again.

Vanessa shakes her head. “C’mon, Nina. Your brain is the best thing to ever happen on this planet. It’s just tired, because  _ your  _ problem-” she pokes Nina’s chest. “Is that you haven’t been letting yourself rest. You can’t force your brain to be productive if it’s dead tired.”

Nina makes a small noise. “I can’t rest knowing there’s seven hundred things i haven’t-”

Vanessa leans down to kiss her gently, and it’s chaste and warm and Nina feels like she might melt.

“Rest,” Vanessa says firmly, pressing their foreheads together.

Nina nods slowly. “Okay.”

Vanessa kisses her forehead and pulls her in for another hug, and Nina pulls the blanket around her too, so they’re sharing their breath and warmth.

They stay like that, entertwined in silence, for a while. Then Vanessa presses in close and hums a soft song into Nina’s ear, one Nina swear she’s heard before. It’s sweet and delicate and Nina feels herself lulling into sleep for the first time in a long time. 

And she feels safe.

  
  
  



End file.
